A-H collar insignia & medals

[PeterDor]

so, in the end, baesd on the original photos i posted, we have no way to determine for sure what type of unit/serrvice he served with (artillery, infantry, etc.) and no way then to determine the background color of his collar insignia?

[a-h]

Взагалі з чорно-білої світлини важко встановити колір, але червоний (колір гармати) приблизно саме так і відображається! Але дійсно, остаточно встановити приналежність можна було б встановити лише по підпису або за іншими джерелами, що б мали залишитися від зображеного: листи, документи до нагород, etc...

[history1]

@a-h:
Please write in English, which is the language of the Forum.

[a-h]

Since black and white photography hard to set the color, but red (color gun) about it and see!

But indeed, to finally determine the identity can be set only by signature or by other sources that would have stay of representation: letters, documents to the awards, etc ...

[PeterDor]

thank you all, once again, for the interesting comments and observations. if there are any new thoughts out there, they will be greatly appreciated.

in the end, it is unlikely i will ever be able to determine anything more about this soldier, my grandfather and the person i am named after. he died in 1971 and all that is left are these two photos and the handwritten notes on the back, plus a few family stories.... not much chance that any records will ever be found either: as a ukrainian who served 7 years for the kaiser, he returned home in 1918 only to see his homeland overrun by the poles, twenty years later it was the germans, then the russians... a total of 7 countries had jurisdiction over his tiny house outside of lviv over the course of just 75 years.
when i checked in vienna, i found that the individual k.u.k. service records were shipped to "successor" countries in the 1920s and i highly doubt these survived the second world war....

[Old Prohaska]

Dear Peter,

Don't despair! Recruiting in the Alte Monarchie was based on geography, so knowing that your grandfather lived near Lviv (Lemberg) we can narrow down the the units in which he may have served:

K.u.K. IR 55 (collar facing color red-brown)
K.k. Landwehr IR 18 (grass green)
Feldkanone Reg. 32 (red)
Feldhaubitz Reg. 13 (red)
Reitende Artillerie Div. 11 (red)
Schwere Haubitz Div. 11 (red)
Sappeur Baon. 11 (Cherry red)
Ulan Reg. 1 (Gamboge yellow)

We're fairly sure that the collar patches are some shade of red, so we can eliminate the Ulans and Landwehr. I would expect artillery buttons on his shoulder straps for artillery. If you are correct that he was an engineer, then Sappeur Baon. 11 seems a likely choice. There were several companies from SB11 assigned to VII Korps in Italy during 1917, so that seems plausible. At least it's a starting point for further research.

-OP

[PeterDor]

Many thanks! It's just amazing that there is still so much detail out there... If it helps narrow it down any further, his village was/is located due west of Lviv in what was then the "Grodek" county (no. 89 on the Austrian military corps map http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_Army).

[Old Prohaska]

The "89" refers to the Infantry Regiment recruiting district! So your grandfather could well have been in IR89, whose facing color was claret-red, except they seem to have spent the war on the Eastern Front. SB10 (all Sappeur Baons. had cherry red facings) would have been the closest to Grodek, and did serve on the Italian Front in 1917.

-OP

[PeterDor]

Was SB10 structurally part of IR89? Any idea where there might be more information about IR89 and SB10, even in German? I have found some unit histories while surfing the internet, but not everything has been digitized of course.

[Old Prohaska]

I would post your photo and questions on this forum:
http://austrohungarianlandforcesdiscussionforum.yuku.com/forum/

SB10 was not structurally part of IR89. Sappeur Battalions were independent, and were often split-up by company and assigned where ever they were needed. This site, http://www.austrianphilately.com/dixnut/index.htm while a bit cumbersome to use, can be a big help in tracking the locations of various units during the course of the war.

-OP

[PeterDor]

thanks again. when i was scrolling through the "austrianphilately" site (very interesting, indeed), i noticed the list of "brückenbataillone" and immediately remembered another tidbit from the "family lore": that my grandfather was involved with bridge-building on the italian front. of course, that doesn't mean that he was a member of those brückenbataillone per se (i suppose he could have just been a regular sapper working alongside the bridge engineers), but it's interesting nonetheless. assuming he was recruited in district 89 and served as an engineer (therefore sb10), i will try to see if there are any crosslinks between sb10 and the brückenbataillone. or, put another way, is there any way to trace which brückenbataillone a recruit from district 89 would have served in? complicating all of this, of course, is that we're talking about a low-ranking soldier serving in an army almost a hundred years ago in a country that no longer exists. in addition, he had already served 3 years before the war broke out, and then served all four years of the war. i can imagine he could have been transferred all over the place during that time, though, based on what i know, he was always stationed in the klagenfurt area, on the italian front.

[Old Prohaska]

There was only one pre-war brückenbataillon, based in Krems, but assigned to the same Brigade (121st w/ XIV Korps) as SB10). The brückenbataillone were expanded as required, but unfortunately I don't have any information as to recruiting practices.

-OP

[PeterDor]

well, that certainly sounds like a plausible scenario, at least one that fits the family lore ... krems is a long way from the italian front, but by the time the war broke out, i am sure it's safe to say that units were moved all over the place.